The early retirement movement is something that fascinated me when I first hear about it (on the TMBA ep with Mr. Money Moustach). The idea is that you strictly reduce your outgoings and lifestyle while increasing your savings to the point where you can retire early and live (frugally) off your savings and its interest. Many have suceeded, Mr Money Moustash being somewhat of a posterchild for the movement. On the TMBA podcast, Dan and Ian talk about how taking this route still means you need to follow the system and put up with working for the man until your savings reach a certain level and even at that, you still have to live a life of low outgoings to maintain your low burn rate. Their counter view is that spending the time starting and building a business can result in the same or more money available, while not having to penny-pinch and in parallel, learning a bunch of skills and doing something you love (if you pick the right business to start).

I love the idea of non-frivilous spending and since discovering the early retirement movement, I try to actively question any purchases (with variable consistency :-p). I think this is a viewpoint and skill that is important in battling the ever-present hyper-consumer world we live in. In saying that however, I'm as much of a sucker for the latest Macbook or camera as the next person but if you can be mindful of spending while also building a business, be your own boss and choose the work you want to do, that sounds like a win win to me. This week's episode was a good one and certainly resparked my faith in the self-employed path. I feel like both the early retirment and entrepreneurship options are secrets that everyone on the school->college->job life trajectory should know about. They are by no means easier options, but for some, may be more worthwhile.

Electric Spiders

Image: None, I can't do it, I can't search for a royalty free image of a spider, I don't like spiders a lot! :-p

Spider ballooning is when a spider releases strands of silk and uses them to propel itself through the air, or so people thought. Researchers at the University of Bristol observed successful spider ballooning with the absence of any wind and even in rainy conditions. Their study discovered that spiders can detect minuscule electric fields caused by the Atmospheric Potential Gradient. Other insects such as bumblebees can detect a electric fields between themselves and flowers and can use their charge to communicate with the hive. Until now, it was not known that spiders can detect similar fields and, together with their insulating silk strands, use the fields to provide life in the absence of wind.

MIT Cheetah 3

Image: YouTube, MIT

MIT have released another video of humans being mean to robots their Cheetah 3 quadruped robot navigating a range of obstacles blind (without image sensors), including running up debris filled stairs (haha, take that Daleks!) and enduring being poked with a big stick while running and minding it's own business!

Cropmarks

Image: RCAHMW, Outline of a Roman farmstead of villa in Caerwent, South Wales.

The scorched earth and drought stricken land caused by the current heat wave is revealing the footprint of ancient settlements in land across Wales. Dr. Toby Driver, the Royal Commission's aerial investigator (bet that job title makes for an awesome business card!) is cataloging these ancient aerial clues. Many iron age and roman settlements have revealed themselves already.

First 3D Colour X-Ray Using CERN Tech

Image: Mars Bioimaging Ltd.

Technology developed at CERN by New Zealand father and son scientists Professors Phil and Anthony butler called the Medipix3 has been used to produce the world's first 3D colour X-Ray. The Medipix is a chip used in the Large Hadron Collider for particle imaging and detection and has been refined by the scientists over the past 20 years. Their company MARS Bioimaging Ltd is now commercialising a 3D scanner using the technology.

Itty Bitty

Itty Bitty is a new technology/service that allows a website to be stored and delivered in a URL. Itty Bitty can store up to 2KB of data in a compressed and encoded link and the site inflates the data when the link is visited.(H/T to Jenn for finding this)

Podcasts Of The Week: HIBT Chicken Salad Chick

Image: NPR

How I Built This (HIBT) is a great business podcast that highlights how now successful businesses, often household names like Ben & Jerrys or Dyson, got started and battled through to achieve success.The story of Chicken Salad Chick on a recent episode is particularly inspiring. This one will probably have you in tears by the end (as it did me!).

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About Found This Week

Found This Week is a curated blog of interesting posts, articles, links and stories in the world of technology, science and life in general.Each edition is curated by Daryl Feehely every Friday and highlights cool stuff found each week.The first 104 editions were published on Medium before this site was created, check out the archive here.

Daryl Feehely

I’m a web consultant, contract web developer, technical project manager & photographer originally from Cork, now based in Swansea. I offer my clients strategy, planning & technical delivery services, remotely & in person. I also offer freelance CTO services to companies in need of technical bootstrapping or reinvention. If you think I can help you in your business, check out my details onhttp://darylfeehely.com